Overview

One way to increase credit card rewards to to use the right cards for the right purposes. It’s possible to routinely earn 5X (e.g. 5 points per dollar) by using cards that offer the best bonuses for each type of spend. For example, some cards offer bonuses at grocery stores, some at office supply stores, some at gas stations, etc. Below is a roundup, by category, of the best credit card category bonuses. Since there are multiple fee-free cards that offer 2% returns for all spend, I’ve only included cards that offer better than 2% returns within categories.

For cards that earn points instead of cash back, I’ve listed the “X” which is the number of points per dollar earned in that category. For example, “5X” means that the card earns 5 points per dollar in the given category.

Wherever possible, within each category, cards are sorted by the value of the rebate in descending order based on my Fair Trading Prices point valuations.

FOOTNOTES

1) US Bank Cash+ Cardholders must pick one 2% cash back category and two 5% categories each quarter.

2) US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards card earns 2X at either airlines, grocery stores, or gas stations, whichever is highest in spend each month. This card also earns 2X for cell phone charges. Only the American Express version of this card earns 2X at restaurants.

3) Chase no longer offers a 7% annual dividend to new cardholders. Those who applied for the card while the 7% dividend was still in place will continue to earn the dividend for points earned through the end of 2015.

4) Ink Cash, Ink Classic, Sapphire, and Freedom cards earn Ultimate Rewards points (even though Chase advertises these cards as cash back cards). When paired with a premium card such as the Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Plus, points can be transferred to the premium card and then to airline and hotel programs.

5) The “old” Amex Blue Cash card is still available. Read this post to find out how to get it.

6) Amex SimplyCash cardholders must pick a single 3% cash back category. Additionally, all cardholders get 5% cash back at US office supply stores and wireless phone providers.

7) Get an extra 10% bonus when redeeming cash rewards to an eligible BOA checking or savings account. e.g. 1% rewards become 1.1%.

8) 5% cash back offer for first 6 months for the Wells Fargo card can be found here.

9) Amex EveryDay Preferred earns a 50% bonus on points earned when you use the card 30 or more times per billing period.

[…] using the correct credit card is of paramount importance for getting more rewards. Frequent Miler has a great rundown of the best credit card bonus categories, and in a subsequent post, I’ll do an overview of the best cards for the military […]

[…] Many stores offer their own rewards programs in which you earn points as a percentage of each purchase. Grocery stores, in particular, tend to offer fuel rewards (points that can be used for gas station discounts). Even better, they often run promotions for double or quadruple points for the purchase of merchant gift cards. And, as you’ll see on the list above, many grocery stores now sell eBay gift cards. Optimize your purchase by buying at a grocery store offering fuel rewards and pay with a credit card that has a great grocery store category bonus. […]

[…] to your Magic Band end up on your hotel bill, which means that if you use a credit card that has hotels as a bonus category to settle up at your resort hotel, everything you charged to your Magic Band will also get that […]

Just found a brokerage firm that lets you buy stock with a credit card! Can buy up to 2500 per month of any individual stock. Only limit is that there is a limited selection of stocks available. No fees for buy OR sell side. Here is the link.

Did not get my 3X from US Bank for a charitable donation made to my church. Was told by the rep that since Visa classified it as a “religious organization” and not a “charitable” organization, it did not qualify, even though clearly a church is a charity under the IRS code. Strongly suspect the same holds true for all US Bank products. Tell readers to check Visa merchant classification before make contribution. I am appealing the decision and will let you know what happens.

Sorry to hear that. That’s a problem with all category bonuses. You only get the bonus if the organization you pay is coded a certain way for credit card processing. Sometimes, though, that can work in your favor. For example, some 7-11 stores are coded as gas stations (even when they are not) and so it is possible to get gas station bonuses there.

I think the Fair Trading Value for the American Express Blue Cash Preferred in the Grocery category should be set at 4.75%, since that is the best you can hope to earn. It is capped at $6000 and has a u annual fee, so if you hit exactly $6000 in groceries you end up with 4.75%, and if you are more or less from $6000 the earnings percentage is less due to the fixed $75 fee. So the card should drop a few spots on the list.

Any other cards with annual fees should be adjusted as well.

So the Sallie Mae has the best cash back percentage, its only weakness is a low monthly cap.

That makes sense, but not for all cards. Often people will pay the annual fee for a card for its perks and so it wouldn’t be right to count that against the category bonus values. Plus, it sounds like a lot of work!

@Themanwhocan I agree completely that for those that think on the margin the Amex BCP has a marginal/incremental reward of 4.75% for each dollar spent from $1 to $6000 at grocery stores. For me, I view the Amex BCP as no longer having any further use once I would hit the $6000 cap, but of course other people may view the gas rewards or other benefits as worthwhile enough to justify the $75 AF and thus view the AF as a “sunk cost” rather than thinking on the margin.

Just got an invite for the AAA Member Rewards card issued by BOA. No annual fee, 3x for travel and AAA related purchases, 2x for gas, grocery and drug stores, & 1x for everything else. Do not see where there are maximum cash back limits on spending. Does anyone have experience on how the CVS vanilla reloads are categorized with this card.

This is a great page. so hard to find and keep track of category-specific rewards, esp. since they change every quarter for cards like Chase Freedom. Does anyone know of a page like this that is kept up to date? I’ve found this app to be useful for convenience since I tend to carry many rewards cards at once: http://www.rewardscardpicker.com/ but love to see the fair trading price rebate figures.

You might need a new category, for online purchases. There are starting to be a lot of combination shopping portals with corresponding credit cards that often give 10% or more combined cash back at select online merchants.

Ebates.com/Ebates VISA, Upromise.com/Upromise MasterCard, Savingstar.com/SavingStar American Express, are just three that immediately come to mind. I guess Discover IT and Chase Freedom are also in this category.

Thanks for that info. I see what you mean now. I think I’ll remove the travel version from this list for now since it doesn’t seem to be available to new applicants. I can put it back later if we find a working link.

There is another Chase AARP card (different than the one you have listed with 3% rewards for gas & restaurants) that provides 3% rewards for travel purchases defined as “every flight, hotel stay, car rental, train ride, cruise and travel agency purchase”. See https://creditcards.chase.com/aarp/TravelRewards

Yeah, I used to have that one listed, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to apply for it anymore, so I took it out. On the page you linked to, if you select “Not a cardmember, Click here” it takes you to the application for the other version of the card.

New Mexico Educators Cash Rewards card. 5% rotating categories. Warning: the bank seems to have a huge number of potential fees, such as $5 PER DAY if your account is over drafted, and there are fees for not using your bank account, fees if the us mail they send you ever bounced back as undeliverable, etc, etc. even fees for setting up another bank so you can transfer money, and then fees for actually allowing the money to transfer…

Citi has not been offering new accounts for the Dividend World MasterCard for at least two months now. Therefore, I suggest it not be listed as a 5% rotating category card above. Citi also has a Forward card (no annual fee) that gives me 5% off of all restaurants, movie theaters and brick and mortar bookstores (ecludes amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com). You previously listed that card, but took it off once Citi stopped offering new accounts on it.

I left the Dividend card on this page because I believe it is still possible to get the card by downgrading other Citi cards. I removed the Forward card because you can’t get one at all if you don’t already have it.

I do not belive that Citi will allow you to open a new Dividend card under any circumstances, including conversion/downgrade. I already have one from many years ago, but Citi would not allow my wife to convert another Citi card to a Dividend card. Based on this, I recommend you longer list it. If you have other info on how to convert/downgrade an existing Citi card to a Dividend card, I would love the details.

Just a heads up Golden1 Platinum Rewards Visa is only for CA residents.

Given that I am in a bordering state I took a chance and successfully applied for deposit accounts followed by a credit card app. My credit card app was declined and told on reconsideration that no unsecured credit was granted outside of CA.

My two biggest spend categories are groceries and restaurants – so it looks like one card I have, the Amex HHonors Surpass – covers both at 6X – can I ask a silly question? what does the second column mean – estimated value? thanks

Estimated Value for points & miles is based on my Fair Trading Prices (see page of same name under the Resources menu). The numbers on this page are slightly out of date, but are in the ballpark. So when it says that the Hilton card earns 6X and that the estimated value is 2.4%, that means that the 6X points you earn are worth roughly the same as 2.4% cash back.
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Personally, no, I wouldn’t use the Hilton card within those categories because I have cards that offer better returns. Otherwise, yes, I would.

You should list the Citi ThankYou Premier at 3.75% (1.25 per point) for Car Rentals. Also, the Citi ThankYou Pestige should be listed at 3.99% where you have it as 3.75% for Hotels & Travel / Airlines above. From the official Citi ThankYou Premier application Pricing & Terms pages: “3 ThankYou Points for every dollar you spend on purchases at airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, travel agencies, gas stations, commuter transportation, taxi/limousines, passenger railways, cruise lines, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, campgrounds and trailer parks, time shares, bus lines, motor home/RV Rental and boat rentals” Also “25% more value on airfare, hotels, cruises and car rentals when redeemed through the ThankYou Travel Center.” The Prestige page states “3 ThankYou Points for every dollar you spend on purchases at airlines, hotels and travel agencies” and “50,000 bonus ThankYou® Points … enough points to redeem a $665 flight on any other airline or $500 in gift cards” (equals 1.33 multiplier)

Thanks for the reminder!
I added Premier (3X) and Prestige (3X via travel agencies) to Car Rentals
I added Premier (3X) to Gas
I didn’t change the rebate %s. Those are based on my Fair Trading Prices of points and miles and are independent of redemption values.

The PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards actually provides 5% as a statement credit for gasoline pay at the pump purchases, as long as you also have a money market account at PenFed and also avoids the $25 annual fee for the card and makes it a “Plus” credit card vs. the “Standard” card. You can have a money market account with only $25 in it to qualify for this. See the details at https://www.penfed.org/Platinum-Cash-Rewards/

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